Women of the Bible

Synopsis

Women of the Bible by John Green

About the Author

John Green grew up in Orlando, Florida, within spitting distance of Disney World. He moved to Ohio for university, where he studied English and Religion. For several months after graduating, John worked as a chaplain at a children’s hospital. While there, he was inspired to write his first novel, Looking for Alaska, which became a bestseller in the United States and won many literary prizes around the world, including the Michael L. Printz Award in the US and the Silver Inky Award in Australia. John’s second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was published in 2006, and became a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize as well as being named a Michael L. Printz Honor book. Paper Towns, published in the US in 2008, debuted at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and won the prestigious Edgar Allen Poe Award for best mystery novel. In 2009, Paper Towns was also voted #1 in the ALA (American Library Association) Teens’ Top Ten by over 11,000 readers. The Fault in our Stars is his latest bestselling literary tour de force.

In his spare time, John is a huge fan of English Premier League football, but he won’t tell you which club he supports because he does not wish to alienate any potential readers. He does admit, however, to getting chills whenever he hears “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

John Green currently lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Sarah.

JOHN GREEN Q&A

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

For this one, let’s stick to the world of young adult books:

I was really fond of The Babysitters’ Club. Did you guys have those books? It was a series about a bunch of girls who started a babysitting business. And they were always getting into trouble and talking about boys and Learning Important Lessons. These books were strictly for girls—pink covers, etc.—but I loved them.

I’m awfully fond of Huck Finn, the American teenager who refuses to be civilized by the demented world in which he finds himself.

Satan in Paradise Lost. It’s no contest, really.

I would be Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books. It’s a good life for a crazy beautiful veteran of Dumbledore’s Army.

I think pretty much every human being can benefit from reading The Golden Compass [Northern Lights - UK title].

Well, I wish I’d written them all. I mean, if I had written every book ever published, I would be so rich.

10. What inspired you to write your book Paper Towns?Well, I grew up in Orlando, and I’ve always wanted to set a book there because Orlando is a place that was imagined into reality. Walt Disney flew over a swamp 60 years ago and decided to build an amusement park. And now, a couple generations later, Orlando is a city of half a million people.

I also wanted to write a mystery novel, because I have long loved mysteries.

Oh, I don’t think any of it is particularly good, to be honest. The question of quality is not one for me to answer; my books belong to their readers, not to me.

I started writing stories when I was eight years old, but they were terrible. I don’t mean that they were bad in the way that all stories by eight-year-olds were bad; I mean that they were unusually bad. I don’t think I wrote a good sentence until college—and even then they were anomalous, like the proverbial monkeys at the proverbial typewriters who eventually write Hamlet.

Read. Reading is the only apprenticeship we have.

I am a little superstitious about keyboards. Like, if I am struggling with a story, sometimes I will start to blame the keyboard. And then I will go out and buy a new one. This has resulted in an extensive collection of keyboards. Fortunately, they are cheap.

Yes. But then I will open up that bottom drawer and begin reading, and I will realize that the bottom drawer exists for a reason.